


Robot Monkey

by LibbyWeasley



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fangirl, Monkeys, Robots, work au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 18:04:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21183689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibbyWeasley/pseuds/LibbyWeasley
Summary: Jemma Simmons has always wanted to meet Leopold Fitz. When she gets a new job she might finally have her chance.





	Robot Monkey

**Author's Note:**

> Written for @aosficnet2 Promptober day 26 - robots and @marvelfluffbingo for the square fangirl moment.
> 
> So technically there is a robot in this fic (I just got distracted by the rest of it). And the title is also the name of an episode of Curious George, which we have been watching all morning.

Jemma said goodbye and then dropped her phone onto her bed, letting out a squeal that brought her roommate, Daisy, running.

“What’s wrong?”

“I did it! I got the job!” She knew her euphoria was evident in her voice, but she was too excited to care that she sounded like an overexcited teenager. 

Daisy rolled her eyes, slightly out of breath. “Of course you got the job, Jemma. You are a genius. They’d be crazy not to hire you.”

“But I’m going to be running the biochem lab. It is quite a step up from my previous position.” And that was true. Jemma twisted the fabric of her bedspread between her thumb and finger. “And _he_ will be there.”

Daisy looked confused and Jemma was hesitant to go on, knowing how much Daisy had made fun of her the last time.

“Who’s _he_ and why is _he_ worth getting so excited over work for?”

“Dr. Leopold Fitz!” She couldn’t help the smile that came over her face at the name.

“Oh...is that the animal doctor?”

“Animal doctor?” Jemma looked at Daisy in disbelief. “Leopold Fitz is a brilliant engineer! I have wanted to meet him ever since I read his first paper nearly ten years ago. And now he’s going to be working right down the hall.”

She squealed again. Her excitement practically bubbling over, Jemma walked to her closet and started planning her outfit for her first day at her new job.

“Oh, Jemma,” Daisy said, shaking her head. “Sometimes you are just a giant nerd.”

* * *

Her first day at SHIELD Technologies was not going as planned. Jemma blew a strand of hair away from her face in frustration. She was sitting in yet another meeting with her boss, or colleagues...or someone. But she still hadn’t caught a glimpse of the person she most wanted to see. 

Her lab was pristine and the projects she was being asked to work on were fascinating. She already had ideas for how to improve their processes when it came to testing samples, and she was eager to dive in to her assigned projects and prove herself in this new position, but mostly she wanted to sneak away and find Dr. Fitz. Surely they could be friends at the very least.

But she’d never have the opportunity if she didn’t get out of these interminable meetings. Even her lunchtime was taken up by thoughtful co-workers taking her out for a celebratory meal. 

She sighed. Even if she never met him, this was the most welcomed she’d ever felt at a new job. It was quite lovely. Daisy’s parting words as she left for work flashed through her mind. She’d warned Jemma that there was no way Dr. Fitz was as wonderful as he seemed and she was bound to feel let down when they actually met. Jemma knew that couldn’t possibly be true, but it still gave her pause, if only for a second.

The end of Jemma’s day finally arrived and it brought with it a sense of accomplishment as well as exhaustion. Preparation and hard work were her secrets to success. That and two PhDs, plus natural intelligence, she supposed. Logging off her computer, she stood and stretched. A cup of tea would be the perfect ending to her work day, to help relax her before she began her commute home, and she was fairly certain she had spotted her favorite tea in the break room. 

This was her favorite time of day, when the hallways were quiet and the offices were dark. There was no one to interrupt her thoughts and her ideas flowed more freely when she didn’t have to slow down to explain them to anyone else. Lost in her thoughts, she was surprised to see someone else in the break room putting a kettle on. She studied him for a moment, trying to remember if he had been introduced to her already and it would be awkward that she didn’t remember his name. But his curls didn’t seem familiar and as her eyes scanned down his body she felt certain she would have remembered that wonderful —

He turned to face her and she let out a gasp. “Dr. Fitz!”

“I’m sorry,” he said, looking at her in confusion. “Do I know you? You aren’t the new janitor are you? I know I said I wouldn’t —“

“Certainly not!” Jemma straightened up to her full height, which may not be very tall, but in this case at least it made her nearly as tall as him. “I am Dr. Jemma Simmons, the new director of the biochem lab.”

“Ah, well never mind then.” He gave her a grin that made her knees a little weak. Even if he had just mistaken her for the janitor. And she was quite certain she looked nothing like Mr. Jones, the janitor she had been introduced to earlier in the day. “Jemma Simmons...not the Dr. Simmons who developed the algae biofuel hydrogen cell?”

Jemma cringed. Of all of her work, of course the thing he’d be familiar with was the one project that hadn’t gone the way she had anticipated. But...he was familiar with her work. And familiar enough that just her name had been enough for him to know who she was. That had to count for something. 

“Unfortunately, yes. It wasn’t my finest work, I’m afraid.”

“What?” He looked directly into her eyes for the first time and she felt herself growing warm from the intense look in his blue eyes. 

“The biofuel...it didn’t perform to specifications,” she said carefully.

He blinked slowly. “I thought it exploded.”

“Well, yes. Of course it did.” He was making her feel so awkward, she felt like a teenager again. “Which wasn’t what it was supposed to do.”

“Ah, I see. Well, it was still brilliant work.”’

He looked a little uncomfortable and they just stared at each other for a few moments.

“What are you doing here?” he finally asked.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” She stepped towards him, extending her hand. “Jemma Simmons, biochem. I just started today.”

“Welcome to SHIELD.” He grasped her hand in his and she could feel his warmth all the way up her arm. “Leopoldo Fitz, engineering. But just call me Fitz.”

They shook hands for longer than was entirely appropriate before Fitz dropped her hand in surprise as the kettle whistled.

“Would you like a cup of tea?” he asked, nodding towards the kettle.

“I’d love one,” she answered with a smile. Take that, Daisy! He was every bit as wonderful as she had imagined. 

Tea in hand, they sat in the break room and talked about SHIELD, their respective work, and what it was like to live so far from home. Conversation flowed easily and only became a bit tense when he talked about the project he was currently working on. The one that had him staying so late. 

“You are being awfully secretive,” she teased. 

He gave her a serious look that made her heart flutter a little bit. “It really isn’t the sort of thing I can just talk about to anyone.”

“Oh. Maybe I can help you,” she suggested. She really should be getting home. Tomorrow would be another early morning and it was already past the time she should be home. But she was having such a good time talking with him, she didn’t want it to end just yet. He was so easy to talk to, it felt like their friendship went back years and not just a single evening. 

“You want to h-help me?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

He looked at her with big eyes.

“You don’t even know what I’m working on.”

“Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s fascinating.” He gave her a look she couldn’t quite decipher. She didn’t know him well enough for that yet. But she wanted to. “All of your work is fascinating. I knew it the first time I read your work on dielectric polarization.”

“Dielectric polarization? I was sixteen when I wrote that.”

Jemma blushed. She probably shouldn’t have told him how long she’d been following his work. 

“Yes, well, I could tell you were brilliant. And it made me feel a little less alone.”

He swallowed. “I have always been fond of your theoretical paper on dendrotoxins.”

“I was sixteen when I wrote that,” she said, repeating his own words back to him. 

“I know. And I thought you were the kind of girl I could talk to.”

“I would have liked that.”

As they talked they moved closer to one another until they were almost close enough to touch. Jemma wanted to reach out to him, but it seemed awfully forward considering she had just met him. She had just about decided to do it anyway when Fitz spoke. 

“So...did you want to come back to my lab?”

Jemma raised her eyebrows. “That’s quite the proposition.”

“Not like that, Simmons!”

She smiled and nodded her agreement. She didn’t really care if it _was_ like that. 

“I have to admit, I really want to see whatever it is you are working on. Because from what you’ve said it’s the perfect technology for just about any situation.”

“I’d like to think so. The design replicates nature, after all.”

She followed him down the darkened halls towards his lab, and the feeling of being somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be only increased her excitement. 

When they reached his lab, he immediately started tidying up the small piles of paper stacked around the room while Jemma looked around. There were incredibly detailed designs, some of them of things she recognized, but others that appeared to be completely revolutionary. 

“Fitz, these are wonderful!”

“Jemma...this is what you wanted to see.”

Temporarily distracted by the way he said her name, it took a minute for her to register what he held in his hand. 

“Is that a robotic monkey?”

He looked slightly offended and she regretted her tone. 

“This is an advanced robotic capuchin. Modeled after the highly intelligent monkey. Just imagine what this baby could do.”

“Oh, I am,” she agreed. If he was spending his time doing this there must be a reason. 

“It can maneuver in small spaces, reach areas that people can’t, climb —“

“Yes, of course, Fitz. Monkeys are quite intelligent. But you didn’t have to design the robot to _look_ like one.”

Fitz mumbled something under his breath. For some reason rather than making her uncomfortable his grumpiness made her smile. 

“I have some ideas for applications,” she said, pleased when he looked interested. “But I’m not sure you’ll be able to keep the monkey design.”

“Fine. But I still get to name it.”

Honestly, she had more ideas for what they could do together than just work on his robot monkeys, but for now this would have to do. She couldn’t wait to tell Daisy she’d been completely wrong about Fitz. He really was quite wonderful.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear from you!


End file.
